Otto Rank (1932), an early student of Freud, said it was important to assert one’s own “will.” He believed that most neuroses develop because people do not have the courage to be themselves; instead, they suppress their true selves in order to please others. Many others agree. Moustakas (1967) calls conformity a self-alienating process by which he means that we cut ourselves off from our own feelings, dreams, talents, and potential because we want to be liked.

I say to you today, my friends, that even though
we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow,
I still have a dream.
It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream
that one day
this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed.
We hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal.

I have a dream
that one day on the red hills of Georgia
the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream
that one day
even the state of Mississippi,
a state sweltering with the heat of oppression,
will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream
that my four little children
will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin
but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day
down in Alabama, with its vicious racists,
with its governor
having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification;
that one day right down in Alabama
little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands
with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.